Lineations on the Ross Sea Continental Shelf, Antarctica

Abstract

Ross Sea is a broad embayment, approximately 1500 km wide and 900 km long, on the Antarctic coast (Fig. 1). Depths range from less than 300 m to greater than 1200 m and average in excess of 500 m. Bathymetry is dominated by a series of roughly northeast-southwest ridges and troughs. The continental shelf is foredeepened; the inner shelf is deeper than the outer shelf due to a combination of enhanced glacial scour and isostatic loading. Repeated expansion of the East and West Antarctic ice sheets is interpreted to have modified the continental shelf. The records of the most recent glacial expansions are preserved in the surficial features and sedimentary deposits of the Ross Sea floor.